Ok, so I found a wild bull snake, or gopher snake, and decided to keep it as a pet. Don’t go freeking out on me saying bad idea, it has no external diseases or parasites well rounded and very friendly. He is about 12-18inch in length. But my only concern is it won’t eat any pinkies.. And also it jus stays in one spot of the cage. It will however let me pic it up, and it will move around on my arm. But how do I get it to eat. And how many inches or what not of shavings should I put in the bottom. I have pine shavings from petco especially for snakes. So yea. Help please and thanks.

Hi, first of all, don’t use pine shavings! Go get some aspen shavings or even paper towels. As far as not eating, it’s a wild snake, so don’t expect it to take f/t. Now, live might work, but you may need to scent it with lizard or something. Avoid holding him until everything’s straightened out. Don’t worry about preparing for winter because it’s not necessary. But, honestly, I’d recommend letting him go and get a nice corn or king. Wild snakes can be very picky, and even though you don’t see anything wrong with it now, something may come up.

Yea, I get aspen, not pine as I stated earlier, I just read that. But I really enjoy this little guy, no offense to the corn snake and coral snakes but they kind of bore me. :-/ but ok, and I have heard of people successfully owning wild gopher snakes and absolutely loving them. If I get the money to buy a snake, and it won’t be a corn... I will let this gopher go. *sigh* but I might still have to wait, because it may not like the 3ft of snow coming in... I live in the Rockies.....

Yea, I get aspen, not pine as I stated earlier, I just read that. But I really enjoy this little guy, no offense to the corn snake and king snakes but they kind of bore me. :-/ but ok, and I have heard of people successfully owning wild gopher snakes and absolutely loving them. If I get the money to buy a snake, and it won’t be a corn... I will let this gopher go. *sigh* but I might still have to wait, because it may not like the 3ft of snow coming in... I live in the Rockies.....

What have you tried? Have you scented? If nothing’s working, you’ll pretty much have to get at least one live. My method is give them one live and one f/t. After they eat the live one, they’re usually so in to it they’ll just jump on the other one. That’s how I got my hognoses back on track.

Hi - I’m late to this thread so just following up on how it’s going. I also caught (actually she was laying in my courtyard very weak and lethargic) a very young Gopher snake. It took moving a pinkie around with a small wooden stick to get her to strike at it and after a while I didn’t have to do that. It helped to put her in a small container to get her accustom to one place to eat.

Another factor in no eating this time of year is winter fasting. I have to different snakes caught in my yard and they both start their fasts in mid-summer. At first it was quite unnerving for them to go months without eating, but they do occasionally take a very small mouse snack – but about 2 sizes smaller than they usually eat. Anything larger will attract their interest but they will not go for it.
Anyway, the snake will probably not do well if let go this late in the season so hang in there. When they finish their fast, you can’t feed them enough!

Finally, our Gopher is a beloved pet. Despite their fierce look (because of their “angry” looking brows) they are gentle and mellow. All snakes go through a young on the move stage, and become stubborn “teens”, but never aggressive. As adults they make great lap snakes. Ours is over 5 ft long and couldn’t be sweeter!

Hi - I’m late to this thread so just following up on how it’s going. I also caught (actually she was laying in my courtyard very weak and lethargic) a very young Gopher snake. It took moving a pinkie around with a small wooden stick to get her to strike at it and after a while I didn’t have to do that. It helped to put her in a small container to get her accustom to one place to eat.

Another factor in no eating this time of year is winter fasting. I have to different snakes caught in my yard and they both start their fasts in mid-summer. At first it was quite unnerving for them to go months without eating, but they do occasionally take a very small mouse snack – but about 2 sizes smaller than they usually eat. Anything larger will attract their interest but they will not go for it.
Anyway, the snake will probably not do well if let go this late in the season so hang in there. When they finish their fast, you can’t feed them enough!

Finally, our Gopher is a beloved pet. Despite their fierce look (because of their “angry” looking brows) they are gentle and mellow. All snakes go through a young on the move stage, and become stubborn “teens”, but never aggressive. As adults they make great lap snakes. Ours is over 5 ft long and couldn’t be sweeter!

Ok, sorry for late reply, yea, he still has not eaten, but since it is winter in the Rockies I am going with winter fasting. I won’t try and feed it till fall. He seems happy enough to create more burrowing holes in the aspen and hide under his log, he seems healthy, a tad bit skinny, but lively. So yea thanks.